Sorgenti: sows' ears into silk purses to make a fortune, just as Gordon Cain, of the Houston-based Sterling Group, became a multimillionaire with Cain Chemical and other operations he and his group assembled and sold. Sorgenti has experienced both the highs and lows of corporate responsibility. He saw many of the technological advances he pioneered at Arco Chemical commercialized. As Arco Chemical's president and chief executive officer, he oversaw the public offering of about 20% of company stock in 1987 (Atlantic Richfield still retains the balance of stock). Under his tenure, Arco Chemical built up U.S. operations and expanded into Europe. However, the company also suffered an explosion with fatalities at its plant in Channelview, Tex., in 1990. Before he retired in 1991, Sorgenti oversaw a settlement with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and the rebuilding effort at Channelview. But working for himself rather than for a giant corporation gives him an immediate sense of involvement, says Sorgenti. "It is a different kind of challenge than working for a major corporation. You make most of the decisions yourself. You do much of the work yourself without a significant staff. You are just a lot more directly involved in the doing, negotiating, and closing of deals. If s just very stimulating. When you are running a large corporation, you are really quite removed from all that." Sorgenti says he and Rullo negotiated
directly with Kamins to purchase Hilton Davis. That company was attractive to them because Hilton Davis had some textile chemical businesses that could complement the old American Cyanamid textile chemicals business, and it also had specialty businesses in pigments, food colorants, carbonless copy dyes, and intermediate fine chemicals. But Hilton Davis had legal problems, says Sorgenti. Kamins and Eastman Kodak's Sterling Winthrop pharmaceuticals business, the company from which Kamins had purchased Hilton Davis, were involved in a number of disputes pertaining to financial matters and environmental cleanup delays and costs at Hilton Davis plants. "We thought that we might be able to settle that litigation because the people at both Sterling and Eastman Kodak knew Freedom Group personnel. We felt we might be able to convince them to work with us to settle the litigation. Indeed, we were able to do that," says Sorgenti, and so the sale to Freedom Chemicals went through. "Starting a company of your own is very difficult and a lot of hard work," says Sorgenti. But buying, assembling, and building a business, he continues, creates jobs and wealth. "It is just terribly exciting. I recommend it to anyone." Marc Reisch
Hayes, industry analyst at Freedonia, predicts the highest growth rate will be among specialty enzymes, such as polymerases and thrombolytics, for research and medical applications. Growth in enzyme demand in pharmaceuticals will come from recent approvals of proprietary, enzyme-based drugs for the treatment of cystic fibrosis and Gaucher's disease and from the many biotechnology-based drugs currently in the development pipeline. In the research area, strong government support of human genome research and the expanding use of DNA technology in agricultural, environmental, and medical areas will spur strong growth. The 177-page, $2,700 Freedonia study, "Industrial and Specialty Enzymes," says market maturity and high enzyme saturation levels will continue to hamper industrial enzyme markets. However, Hayes believes that new product introductions will offer growth opportunities for suppliers on the forefront of technological advances. In particular, strong growth is expected for lipases in detergent applications and for carbohydrases in bakery products. Hayes also expects penetration into new markets such as animal feeds and paper production to increase growth in industrial markets. Detergent products will remain the largest end user of enzymes, according to the report, despite growth that, at 8.8%, will be slightly below average over the next few years. By 1997, the value of enzymes going to detergents will be about $160 million. The study predicts that growth will come from increasing use of Environmental and regulatory pressures lipases and cellulases, growing popularity will help increase demand for enzymes among consumers of superconcentrates, in the next five years, as makers of deter- and increasing use of enzymes in indusgents, pulp and paper, and leather prod- trial detergent applications and automatic ucts reduce their use of such traditional dishwashing detergents. However, intense competition among detergent supchemicals as chlorine and phosphates. A new study of the enzymes market by pliers will hinder dollar growth. Freedonia Group, the Cleveland, OhioOver the next few years, the U.S. will based market research group, says that begin to decrease its dependence on imsince enzymes are both biodegradable ported enzymes. This dependence has and nontoxic, they can be employed to re- been due, in part, to the strength of Euduce the use of more harmful chemicals ropean enzyme suppliers and the low in many manufacturing processes. En- level of production capacity in the U.S. zyme demand will also be stimulated by Freedonia says imports will continue to the introduction of new, proprietary en- play an important role, but the construczymes and an expansion into the biophar- tion of large-scale manufacturing plants maceuticals market, the study says. in the U.S. will increase U.S. capacity. The study predicts that enzyme de- The group also predicts that the increase mand will increase 9.6% per year be- in U.S. capacity will encourage enzyme tween 1992 and 1997 to a total value of exports to countries, such as Canada, $845 million. Between 1982 and 1992, the that have little capacity of their own. growth rate was 9.1% annually. Teresa William Storck
Annual U.S. enzyme demand to increase
NOVEMBER 29,1993 C&EN 43
